Tuesday, November 19, 2013

The last 77 members of the Ottoman dynasty,
which are spread out throughout a wide geography spanning from the
United States to Jordan, are now in communication with one another
through a group formed on the popular social networking website
Facebook.

Some were forced to get by through selling pages of gold-engraved
Korans. Others were forced to sleep on the coast and to travel by coal
trains. Then there were the ones who died before being able to scramble
up the money for a ticket to return to their homeland when Turkey
finally granted permission for the members of the Ottoman dynasty
to return after being forced to spend 50 years in exile. The remaining
members of the dynasty who were forced into exile following the downfall
of the Ottoman Empire gathered for the first time ever in the London Embassy in February in an event hosted by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.

SABAH went and knocked on the door of one of the
remaining members of the Ottoman family who resides in England. The
oldest remaining member of the dynasty, Osman Selaheddin Osmanoğlu, who is the grandson to Sultan Murad V, relayed to us his experience of being one of the remaining members of such a legacy:

It goes on to quote several surviving members of the family about their life in exile.

"Michael Collins Dunn is the editor of The Middle East Journal. He also blogs. His latest posting summarizes a lot of material on the Iranian election and offers some sensible interpretation. If you are really interested in the Middle East, you should check him out regularly."— Gary Sick, Gary's Choices

"Since we’re not covering the Tunisian elections particularly well, and neither does Tunisian media, I’ll just point you over here. It’s a great post by MEI editor Michael Collins Dunn, who . . . clearly knows the country pretty well."— alle, Maghreb Politics Review

"I’ve followed Michael Collins Dunn over at the Middle East Institute’s blog since its beginning in January this year. Overall, it is one of the best blogs on Middle Eastern affairs. It is a selection of educated and manifestly knowledgeable ruminations of various aspects of Middle Eastern politics and international relations in the broadest sense."— davidroberts at The Gulf Blog

"Michael Collins Dunn, editor of the prestigious Middle East Journal, wrote an interesting 'Backgrounder' on the Berriane violence at his Middle East Institute Editor’s Blog. It is a strong piece, but imperfect (as all things are) . . ."— kal, The Moor Next DoorThis great video of Nasser posted on Michael Collins Dunn’s blog (which is one of my favorites incidentally) ...— Qifa Nabki